“Perfection is the enemy of progress” – Winston Churchill
When approaching any activity, whether in sport or life, we often have an idea of what we think perfection should look like. Often this picture of perfection is what we strive towards and measure ourselves against. This picture, however enviable, may actually be hindering our ability to make progress. We build such a monolith of perfection that it paralyzes us to take the first crude steps towards it. Progress begins in errors, no one starts off and instantly achieves perfection. This is a terrifying notion, wherein we do not want to fall short of what we believe to be the perfect end result.
When learning any new skill, technique, or drill we will fail, that daunting image of perfection will evade us. The most beneficial thing we can do with this perfect picture, is fold it up, put it in the back pocket of our minds, and begin. Simply begin. Progress happens when we begin badly, and over time, become less bad. Evolving slowly towards good, then great. Somewhere along this journey we discover there is no such thing as perfect, only better. Each day we can only hope to get a little bit better. If we ever believe we have reached perfection, we have failed.
We live in the time of some of the greatest athletes in the world, such as Lebron James, Michael Phelps, and Tom Brady. Each dominant in their chosen sport. If you ask a kid playing basketball what perfection is to them, they may answer with a resounding ‘Lebron!’. If you were to pose that same question to Mr. James, he would almost certainly not have the same response. Lebron James, along with Phelps, Brady, Woods, and Williams know that they are not perfect. There are always ways to improve, to progress. There exists no such thing as perfection in the world of sports. We must not be paralyzed by the fear that we may not be perfect when we begin.
To achieve true progress, we must jump in with both feet. After that initial step, an endless journey of reflection and improvement may begin. We must evaluate every practice, performance, and task with the mindset of progress. How can I do this better? How could I have done that better? We slowly make these changes and evolve from our crude and often erroneous beginnings into something we may be proud of in the end.
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